Are You Inhaling Microplastics In Your House?

No, not recreationally. Although if you are doing that, we recommend stopping that, too.

Rather, we mean accidentally.

But how?

It’s not fantastic to breathe plastic

Our lungs have one job, and they are really really incredibly good at it.

Seriously, standing out from the rest of the animal kingdom in how good they are at it.

That one job is gas exchange.

Oxygen etc in, carbon dioxide etc out. The “etc” usually doesn’t cause any problems (mostly nitrogen, some inert gases, and hopefully minimal pollutants).

However, if something goes in there that’s not a gas, it’s bad:

• If what goes in is a liquid, that’s usually bad enough (risk of drowning, pleurisy, pneumonia, etc)
• If what goes in is a semi-liquid (such as the “tar” residue from smoking) that’s worse, as it’s even harder to clear
• If something goes in that’s solid, the body has almost* no way to deal with that

*technically we do have macrophages, but that just changes the nature of the problem slightly, since macrophages usually die upon consuming a foreign body, so if it still can’t be broken down, the end result is it still stays put. Simply, more macrophages will come and try to clean that up, die, then even more macrophages will come and… you get the idea.

Microplastics are tiny fragments of plastic that can either be manufactured for some purpose (e.g. glitter, body scrubs, etc) or form when larger plastics break down, or appear as fragments of shed fibers from materials such as synthetic clothing, carpets, and household dust.

Learn more:

• We Are Such Stuff As Bottles Are Made Of
• Mythbusting Cookware Materials
• Microplastics found in artery plaque linked with higher risk of heart attack, stroke and death
• Microplastics are in our brains. How worried should I be?
• Body Scrubs: Benefits, Risks, and Guidance

Historically, microplastics have often been talked about in the context of marine contaminants, killing wildlife and also entering the human food chain that way.

New research by Dr. Nisha Panth et al. shows inhalation can be an equally—or potentially more—troublesome exposure route because our lungs have a truly huge surface area and (as discussed) a limited ability to clear very small particles. And while we don’t all have to eat seafood, we do all have to breathe.

You may be wondering, what goes wrong when microplastics get into the lungs?

And the answer is, so many things that we’ll group them into four categories:

• Inflammation and tissue damage: inhaled microplastics can irritate lung tissue, trigger inflammatory responses (including, but not limited to, that macrophage cascade we talked about), generate reactive oxygen species, deplete antioxidants, disrupt mitochondrial function, and impair tissue repair, contributing to asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary fibrosis, and lung cancer.
• Cellular and molecular disruption: the review also describes interference with autophagy, ferroptosis, epithelial–mesenchymal transition, and immune signaling, along with increased cellular senescence and weakened lung defenses against infection.
• Interaction with surfactants: microplastics can bind to lung surfactants, disrupt air sac function, and alter lung mechanics, with certain plastics such as polystyrene showing particular toxicity.
• Carriers of other toxins: plastic particles can attract and transport pollutants, carcinogens, and microorganisms, delivering them directly into lung tissue and amplifying their harm.

You can read the paper in full, here: Inhaled microplastics and lung health: Immunopathological effects and disease implications

Want to look after your lungs more?

Check out:

Seven Things To Do For Good Lung Health!

Take care!